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See 11 Minutes of 'Star Wars' -- Dubbed into Navajo!

ICTMN Staff

7/3/13

With all the hype (and it is hype) surrounding the opening of The Lone Ranger, you might think that the Disney action-comedy western starring Johnny Depp is the only movie Native Americans care about this week.

Not so.

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, dubbed into the Dine' language—and commonly referred to as "Navajo Star Wars"—opens tonight as part of the Fourth of July festivities on the Navajo Nation.

Many are hailing the entertainment event as a watershed in the constant struggle to keep Native languages alive. Manuelito Wheeler, director of the Navajo Nation Museum, which partnered with Lucasfilm and Deluxe Studios to make the project happen, called the dubbing of such a mass-audience film into Navajo a "cultural mindshift."

Navajo speakers who can't make the premiere—or Natives who care about preserving Native languages—or fans of Star Wars in all its incarnations—will find the following bootlegged clip fascinating. Familiar scenes with some very unexpected dialogue from C-3PO, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader—here are the first 11 minutes of Navajo Star Wars:

NOTE: The original video was removed from YouTube. Here is a much shorter clip showing only the opening title sequence.

Video of Navajo dubbed Star Wars opening with cheers from the audience.

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